"Double Blind," this week's Lie To Me addresses some of the fallout from Lightman's decision last week to allow his feelings for Wallowsky to influence his professionalism and to force Gillian to compromise her own ethics in order to support him. I'm glad the writers don't intend to drop the implications and I enjoyed the games within games that drive this episode. Guest star Tricia Helfer is excellent. However, the actual plot was a little too close in tone and subject matter to last week's for comfort.
There's only so much flirty Cal disrupting cases we should see at a time, before it—and he—become a bit irritating. Roth's Lightman is already a character pushing at the edges. The payoff for this type of unique character is huge, as audiences tend to embrace eccentricity. But Lightman has to remain relatable as well, and I wouldn't want to see him go any further along this path of getting involved with shady women who compromise his skills, his integrity and his other relationships. Not only does it make me question Cal's abilities, it makes me question why Gillian allows him to behave with her as he does.
Despite these misgivings, the episode is still strong. The central premise, very similar to last week's, is laid out by Gillian when she says to Cal, "Never mind. I see you're busy . . . with her legs. Or with the case." There are two layers to Foster's irritation: one is Cal's focus on a pretty woman and the other is she can't tell whether that focus is professional, personal or a mix of the two. The tension between the two partners shows Gillian still has not forgiven Cal for pushing her to lie to save his girlfriend and is watching him with a jaundiced eye.
Cal appears to need that watchful eye as he tries to figure out where the attractive woman, Naomi, fits into a botched art heist at the museum which hired Torres to vet the staff to prevent such a robbery. Torres is reeling from her failure to detect any liars on the staff and there are some nice moments with her boss, as he teaches her how to handle disgruntled feelings from her clients and from within. His advice, besides accepting everyone makes mistakes, is to become a poisonous butterfly and make anyone who bites her regret it.
Article comments
1 - Dolly
I think everyone has failed to notice that Cal has once again used the "long con" to foil the bad guys. He even goes so far as to say he'd been "played" by Naomi. I beg to differ. He knew what he was doing from the get go. His alliance is firmly with Gillian. From the moment he introduces Gillian to Naomi, he says "I'd like you to meet my friend Gill". When he goes for a coffee with Naomi, and they properly introduce themselves, Naomi calls him Cal but Cal asks her to call him "Lightman" - clearly distancing him from Naomi. Only Gillian (and his ex(s)) calls him Cal.Notice the title of the eppy - "Double Blind" - very close to first season's title "Blinded" when he used the long con - keeping Gillian out of the loop in that eppy also - for obvious reasons...
2 - Gerry
I think Cal did indeed never lose sight that he was being played, but I also think he was genuinely attracted to Naomi and not always in the driver's seat when they interacted. Fortunately, he did foil the robbery, even if he didn't know Naomi was a decoy, but I think Foster was less than happy at being deliberately kept out of the loop. Cal tells her the reason he didn't tell her about the paste was that he isn't sure the two of them are alright. Unlike Blinded, he didn't need to keep anything from Gillian to make his con work, as he didn't need a specific genuine reaction from her to fool Naomi. The two hardly interacted at the gala. He's keeping things from her because of fallout from last episode with Wallowsky.
That makes story sense to me, because I wouldn't expect Cal to maneuvre Gillian into doing something she thought was wrong without consequences.